GRAMATICAL CATEGORIES

GRAMATICAL CATEGORIES

1. GENDER

   • English has a rather straigthforward system of gender called natural gender
     • Distinctions made in the language depend upon the sex of the object in the real world
   • English distinguishes
     • Masculine Gender
     • Feminine Gender
     • Common Gender
       • Masculine or Feminine
     • Neuter Gender
       • Sexless
   • Is expressed by inflection only in personal pronouns
     • 3rd person singular
       • she
         • Feminine
       • he
         • masculine
       • it
         • common
     • 1st and 2nd person
       • common
         • I
         • we
         • you
     • 3rd person plural
       • they
         • common
         • neuter
   • other ways to express gender
     • by derivational suffixes
       • examples
         • feminine suffixes
           • -ine (hero/heroine)
         • common gender suffixes
           • -er (bake/baker)
     • by compounds
       • examples
         • girl friend
         • boy friend
     • by separate forms for masculine, feminine and common
       • examples
         • boy
         • girl
         • child
     • by separate forms masculine and feminine and proper names
       • examples
         • uncle/aunt
         • Joseph/Josephine

2. PERSON

   • has three terms
     • 1st person
       • speaker, person speaking
         • I /we
     • 2nd person
       • the addressee/hearer spoken to
         • you
     • 3rd peson
       • the person or thing spoken about
         • she/he/it/they
   • person distinctions are expressed by the inflected forms of the pronouns
     • personal pronouns
       • example
         • I you he they
     • personal possessive determiners
       • example
         • my your his their
     • personal possessive pronouns
       • example
         • mine yours his theirs
     • personal reflexive pronouns
       • example
         • myself yourself himself themselves
   • the referent of I changes depending on who is speaking, I is always relate to the specific speech situation
   • Personal pronouns are what linguists call "deictic"
     • whose meaning depends upon the time and place of speaking
   • nouns are all 3rd person
   • is also expressed inflectionally
     • in the singular
     • present tense
     • indicative of verbs by the -s inflection on the 3rd person sigular (but no on other persons or numbers)
       • she/he/it
         • writes
       • I/you/we/they
         • write
   • generic person
     • The form one expresses generic person (all persons)
     • other forms that also express generic
       • 1st p pl
         • we
           • we´re often misinformed by the media
       • 2nd p
         • you
           • you never can tell
       • 3rd p sg
         • one
           • one doesn´t do that in polite company
       • 3rd p pl
         • they
           • they´ll find a cure for cancer soon
     • the generic you is the most common informal usage
   • deviant uses of person
     • 3rd p for 2 p
       • your excelency, your honor
     • 3rd p for 1st p
       • present company, the writer, your teacher Caesar (spoken by Caesar himself)
     • 1st p for 2nd p
       • we won´t do that anymore, will we (spoken by a parent to a child)

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